Chris Walter's Photo Blog: Portland

Travel is defined by the people we meet. We are all defined by the people we know.

I wrote this after my first trip several month ago which was dedicated to meeting, conversing with and photographing strangers I would meet along the way.

"My portrait project has been quite simply life changing, more than I could have hoped for. The people I have met have have had a profoundly positive effect on my life. The people I have had long conversations with on park benches, empty parking lots, busy street corners, under bridges, they all surprised me to be honest, because what I found impressed me. I found little bits of myself in each of them and I found ways that I wanted to be better and saw things from perspectives I had not considered. I see each one of these people that I conversed with as a lens by which they were kind enough to let me see the world through and by seeing the world through their eyes I have come to see mine more clearly as well."

Even in the short while I have been in Portland I have met a surprisingly diverse group of people. Many of the encounters so far have been passing, with only a few minutes to listen and capture. But out all all the people I have met while pursuing this side project, Greg(pictured above) has made the biggest impression on me.

I met Greg in downtown Portland, east side of the Hawthorne bridge. Greg approached me asking for a light and after a few minutes conversation on everything from sailing the Puget Sound to fishing in Alaska, he admitted to being in the process of withdrawing from heroin, which in his case meant sleeping under a bridge until the withdraw symptoms faded. I hardly thought that was a good approach to kicking his habit and apparently it wasn't. As the day went on he kept on becoming more and more agitated, heroin withdraw symptoms include, anxiety, nausea, muscle aches and abdominal cramps as well as a host of other things intent on making sure it's as difficult as possible to quit. He kept on talking about needing $15 so he could get better and make it through today all the while complaining about cramps. I wasn't exactly clear on what his definition of "get better" meant, and if I had stopped to think about it, heroin is the cure for all of his immediate symptoms. But oblivious to this fact, when he offered to sell a couple of locking carabiners (used for climbing and sailing) for $15 I agreed. With the $15 dollars he had earned her asked if I wanted a "tour" which I have to admit turned out to be the most interesting tour I have ever been on.

Greg's tour involved meeting several of his friends(also junkies) who went on to brag about purchasing 8balls, which made me chuckle, I guess every social circle has it's own goals to strive for. The tour also included a run down on the the pushers we past and what they charged. We eventually ended up in the South Park Blocks which apparently has someone willing to sell for $15. After an initial disagreement among his friends over whether or not their needles were clean I stepped back and watched them prep the shot. Greg got his shot ready, his friends left to find their own and I was left with a Greg looking happier than had seem him yet. This is where things really got interesting, even though the shot was prepped and inserted into his arm he couldn't plunge it no matter how hard he tried. The needle was clogged and he started shaking, attempting to transfer the shot to another plunger all the while getting big air bubbles in his syringe, which in spite of everything struck me as dangerous. After his third needle clogged on him he really starting to freak out his voice was quivering as he told me "dude this is like a junkies worst nightmare", followed by a whispered "please God help me" which seemed painfully ironic at that moment. I thought he was about to cry and when he snapped the plunger on his third needle and after throwing it on the ground he did. Up to that point I wasn't sure how bad his withdraw was but seeing him cry definitely brought home the kind of pain he must have been in.

I think off all the strangers I have met Greg has had the biggest impression solely because his view, his uniquely distorted version of reality allowed me to see something different. I mentioned several paragraphs up that I think every person is a lens, with their own focal length and particular distortion brought on by their own experiences and the experiences of the people closest to them. The lens that Greg let me see his world through encouraged me to reevaluate opinions I've held and things I've taken for granted. I can relate to how Greg feels in certain capacities and finding relation with someone who is apparently so different is always eye opening.

Unfortunately I am going to have to leave you with only the faces and not the stories of all the incredible people I have met here in Portland. Otherwise this post will grow to ridiculous proportions!